Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)

I listened to what the Minister had to say last night. Unlike some of my colleagues, on balance I must support the provisions of this Bill. The Bill addresses whether the force used by a householder is reasonable when he or she confronts an intruder and struggles to protect his or her home. The Bill affords protection from civil liability to the actions of a householder in such circumstances and removes any requirement that the householder should retreat rather than confront an intruder. The current law, as set out in the 1995 Act, is inadequate and the balance is not sufficiently on the side of the person defending his or her home. The law-abiding vulnerable person who is in fear and under serious threat of injury, assault or even death in his or her home requires greater legal protection.

I am not impressed by any of the Minister's arguments, least of all the argument that he must reject this Bill to give himself time to analyse its merits when it is clear that the Bill can be accepted on Second Stage and amended, where necessary, on Committee Stage. This issue is causing great public disquiet. We are told that 500 burglaries take place every week. According to the Minister's statistics, one Garda district in my constituency covering a large part of Dublin 7 experienced 658 recorded burglaries last year. Of those, a mere 65 were detected.

Breaking into any person's home is a despicable crime. It causes great fear, particularly among elderly people, and arouses understandable emotions. It is due to this Government's failure to provide sufficient gardaí for regular foot patrols in the community that there are so many house break-ins. Consequently, the number of detections is pathetic.

See this speech in context